


Full of Surprises

by Gozzer



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Supernatural
Genre: Ghosts, Hunters & Hunting, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 14:31:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20707580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gozzer/pseuds/Gozzer
Summary: Spencer Reid used to be a hunter. Not the kind that kills animals, the kind that destroys monsters. He thought he got out of the game until a call comes in while he's working a case with his team.





	Full of Surprises

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in season 5 of both shows. And spoilers, I guess, if you haven't watched that far yet.

Dr. Spencer Reid used to be a hunter. He learned about all of the things that go bump in the night early in his teenage years from some journals he found. Turns out his mother used to be a hunter until she married his father and had him. All of the journals he found used to be hers when she was out hunting. Now at first he obviously didn't believe in anything like that, but then asked his mother about it. She was adamant he didn't learn about the creatures until one such thing attacked them. 

For close to three years he learned all he could about supernatural creatures and how to destroy them. He was fifteen when he actually killed something. It was just a werewolf that was terrorizing a small town just a ways outside of Vegas. The thing is with Spencer is that he's a pretty good shot, despite trying to pretend he's not. But he lacks in physical strength that is required for most hunting. Which led him to hunting with a few others sometimes. Once he turned eighteen and put his mother in a care hospital he started to actually hunt. Of course he continued to get his PhD's but that didn't hinder him. During his hunting for years he ran into Bobby, John, and Dean more than once. He spent a lot of time with them when he was out; he finally had someone else to work with that had enough muscle to get things done and they got all the knowledge they could need. 

When he turned twenty-two he started on the FBI academy courses. Hunting took a backseat while he tried his best to pass the tests and courses, even if he did provide the three older hunters with any piece of info they needed. By the time he passed and finished the academy he wasn't really hunting anymore. Then he got offered the job at the BAU and he stopped hunting altogether. Dean had called at some point to tell him Sam was back to hunting and Spencer told he was done hunting for a long time. The older hunter took the news relatively well but never called him again. Bobby on the other hand called him at least twice a year to make sure he wasn't dead and maybe a few more times if he needed to know something about a case. But Spencer was done killing monster and salting bones, and was actually going about catching human monsters now. 

<

The day was starting out nice and calm for Spencer. He arrived at work at seven in the morning and downed at least two cups of sugar coffee already by the time he got through some reports. Prentiss and Morgan were just arriving when Garcia waved them up to the conference room. Careful not to knock over anything, he got up on his crutches and made his way up to where everyone else was already sitting. A file was placed in front of him while Garcia took the remote and turned on the TV. 

"We've got three bodies in Joplin, Missouri. Each one was found in their homes by a neighbor." Three pictures of what could be assumed to be bodies showed up on the screen. Blood and flesh was everywhere in the scenes and the bodies themselves looked to be as if they were hit by a train. "There were no signs anyone else was in the houses and the neighbors didn't hear anything out of the ordinary." Garcia was making sure to not look at the screen or the pictures in the file in front of her. 

"Alright, wheels up in twenty." Hotch gathered up his file and left the room without another word. Spencer continued to study the pictures for a moment longer before getting up as well. Something didn't feel right about this case. People don't just explode in their houses and he's pretty sure a human wouldn't be able to do that; or at least he was hoping a human couldn't pull that off. If it came down to it he would call in somebody to take care of the creature or just do it himself if he could. But being bound on crutches didn't bode well for hunting even if it was something simple. 

<

On the plane he sat on the couch with the file spread across his lap. The others were already discussing what they thought had happened and what type of unsub could have pulled it off. Spencer wasn't exactly paying attention to them as he went over what else could have caused the deaths. As far as he could tell there wasn't any creature or monster he had read about that could do something like exploding a person. Of course there were certain cases of violent ghosts but nothing to the degree the pictures showed. If a human actually pulled off those murders they would have to have some skill in either explosives, or they had a serious psychotic break. 

He brought up as much with his team. Each of them had their own findings to add to the profile they were making for the unsub. Garcia was up on a laptop talking about what she could find about the victims and the only that remotely connected them was the fact that they were all white. One victim was a young woman with red hair, an older man with graying hair, and a teenager that had just moved out from his parents. 

"Thank you, Garcia." Rossi closed the screen once the tech analyst had disappeared. 

"Alright, Morgan, Prentiss. Visit the last crime scene. Rossi and JJ, go talk with the families and neighbors. Reid, you and I are working on victimology." Everyone nodded at their tasks and went back to the file. 

Reid flipped through the pictures again before his phone started ringing. The others looked over at him while he tried to pull the thing out of his pocket before it stopped ringing. He flipped it open and pressed the accept button before putting it up to his ear. 

"Reid." He said while closing the file in his lap.

"Hey, man. How've you been?" Spencer did his best to not show his surprise on his face as Dean's voice came though the phone. He moved the file to the couch next to him and gathered his crutches to move to the back of the plane, and away from his team.

"Why are you calling me? You know who I work for." The FBI had been after the Winchester brothers for two years before they got caught. Hendrickson had them in Colorado before demons surrounded the building and blew it up after the brothers escaped. Not that the FBI knows that. Bobby had called him a few days after the incident to inform him that they were both still alive and kicking. 

"They think we're dead. It's fine." Spencer leaned against the wall next to the counter that held a coffee pot. "And that's beside the point. There's a case in Missouri that I could use your help with."

"What about Sam or Bobby?"

"Sam and I aren't running together anymore. And Bobby is out of commission right now." By the tone of his voice Spencer knew not to question the man about what had happened. "Three bodies pretty much exploded in their homes."

"You can't be there. My team and I already on our way to find the unsub. If it turns out to not be human then I'll take care of it or call someone else in."

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere. So, either help me out by catching this thing or stop your team from cuffing me," Dean said. 

"Dean. There's not much I can do to help you, I'm sorry." Before Dean could try to argue, he ended the call. This was not how this case was supposed to go. 

He made his way back to the couch and dropped down heavily. If Dean was working the case then it just got a lot harder; he now had to keep his team from arresting Dean before he could deal with whatever was killing people. Which means he was going to have to be the middle man and get him all the information from the police station and the coroners office.

<

When Spencer and Hotch got to the police station both set to work on the victimology. Spencer was doing his best to ignore how much he was going to betray his team just to make sure no one else died. He went through all the information given to him and started to make a profile for both a human suspect and a monster one. The more he worked on the human side of things the less it seemed like a person. He called Garcia to have her get everything she could on the victims and where they were in the last few days prior to their deaths. If all three of them went to a certain place or crossed paths with the same person then he could narrow it down to a human or monster.

Around him he could hear Hotch going about working on the profile and putting things up on the boards. Spencer was content to let his boss work on this case without much of his input while he worked on something entirely different. He knew that if he didn't at least offer a little help then his team would get suspicious but this was the first time he had to make two separate profiles for the same murders. It's not like it was trying but he hadn't hunted in years. He would never be able to forget how nor all the information on all the creatures that go bump in the night; he just didn't want his team drug into that world. They already had to deal with human monsters, he couldn't make them fight supernatural monster as well. 

A couple hours had passed and the rest of them were arriving at the police station. Before they even reached the back room Spencer could tell something had happened. 

"We've got somebody pretending to be a federal agent," Prentiss said. She sat down next to him at the table with JJ not far behind. Spencer sighed and did his best to not show how unsurprised he was. 

"Did you get a description? This could be our unsub," Hotch asked. 

"Tall, brown hair, in a suit." Morgan crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. Spencer knew he'd be upset if this 'person' turned out to be the unsub and he missed him. 

"And easy on the eyes apparently," JJ said. They could hear the humor in her tone as well as the sarcasm. No matter what the others seemed to think, Spencer was pretty good at detecting sarcastic remarks after working with the Winchesters. 

"Get one of them to talk to a sketch artist, see if they can remember anything else about the man," Hotch said. 

"He's driving an old Chevy. One of the men we talked to saw him drive away in it." Spencer looked over at Rossi as he went on about what the man could remember about the car. 

"A four door 1967 Chevrolet Impala," Spencer said. The others turned to him as if asking how he knew the exact car model. "The man said it had four doors and was an old Chevy. Long tail lights with circular headlights. Impala's aren't known to be four doors which narrows down which car model it is, add that in with when they came out then you have a short timeline to choose from. 1967 just happened to be the year that they became popular."

"It still amazes me how much you know about subjects other than science and murder," JJ said. 

"I'll get the Sheriff to put out an ABA for the car and man." Hotch disappeared from the room just as a phone started to ring. Spencer picked up the object and flipped it open to accept the call. 

"So, I got some new dirt on the victims for you, Good Doctor." Garcia's voice coming through the phone made the tension in his shoulders relax.

"Yeah, hold on. I'm gonna put you on speaker." He pulled the phone away from his ear and pressed the speaker button before putting it on the table. "Go ahead, Garcia."

"Alright, so each of our victims were at the same bar the night before they were found. Now I searched everything on the bar and nothing untoward came up. They're as clean as a whistle." Well, that's at least one place ruled out but that didn't narrow down what killed them. "But that was the first time they ever went to that bar. Other than that nothing connects these people."

"Thank you, Baby girl." Morgan reached over the table to end the call before moving away again. Spencer picked up his phone again and sent a quick text to Dean to warn him about the team looking for him. 

"Let's go check the bar." Rossi stood up and nodded to Morgan. They were about to leave when Hotch came back with a grime look.

"There's been another body found," he said. "Reid, go with Prentiss to the crime scene. Morgan, JJ, I want you here." 

<

Spencer tapped his fingers on the crutches as he made his way up to the house. Media and police were outside the building and on the lawn, blocking his view of where he thought he saw a black Impala parked. He stepped up on the porch and made a sweeping look to try and find the car. A little ways down the street the car sat parked with Dean leaning against the hood watching him. With a nod to him he followed Prentiss into the house.

The first thing he noticed was not the bloody scene in front of him, but instead how cold it was. A few degrees colder and one could probably see their breath. Well that was definitely a point to this being a ghost and not a human. 

Doing the best he could, he made his way around the crime scene to try and pick out anything that linked the crimes. He passed a few observations to Prentiss to keep her off his trail as he moved around the room slowly, feeling for cold spots. The coldest spot he could find was right next to the body. Stepping away from the body, he moved to the light switch next to the doorway and flicked it on. The overhead light flickered for a second before going out completely. Right, that's a second point to it being a ghost. 

"I'm going to talk to the neighbor." He said to Prentiss while making his way back outside. The person that found the dead man was sitting on the porch with her head in her hands. Spencer lowered himself to sit down next to her as to not startle her. "I'm Spencer Reid with the FBI, I'd like to ask you a few questions if that's alright?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I'm Heather Jones." The woman gave him a nod but refused to look at him.

"How long have you lived next to, Mr. Wright?"

"Only about a year. He was already living here when I moved next door." 

"Have you seen anyone hanging around his house or watching him?" Heather furrowed her eyebrows in thought before shaking her head. "Alright, did you see anything odd last night? That wouldn't normally happen with Mr. Wright?"

"No, nothing like that." She paused for a moment as she seemed to remember something. "Actually, there was a really bright light coming from his house last night. I just thought his power had gone out and he had a flashlight. Oh, god! Was that the person who killed him?"

"We don't know that for sure, Miss Jones." Bright light? Spencer had never heard of a ghost blinding it's victims first. "Is there anything else you remember?"

"Um, there was some type of horn going off down the street, but I don't think that something to do with his death. Car alarms go off all the time," Heather said. 

"Alright, well thank you. If you remember anything else call the police station." Spencer made his way back to his feet and looked across the street to see if Dean was still there. The black Impala was no longer sitting down the road but he could just barely see the back end turn down the street. 

<

Late that night Spencer was sitting in his hotel room putting together a profile for Dean. Whoever killed those people definitely had a violent end and probably by some kind of vehicle. While he could make a profile for the spirit he would have to leave it up to Dean to find out who it actually was. He still had to help his team and keep them from arresting an innocent man. They had just given the profile to the police and JJ gave it out to the media. It made Spencer uncomfortable to know that he was working against his team while simultaneously helping them go after the wrong man. He didn't know how this case was going to end, or if it even would, but he knew it wasn't going to be the cleanest end. 

Spencer reached for his phone that was sitting on the bed next to him. He knew the others wouldn't be able to hear him but was he really going to obstruct this investigation? Was he going to give out information that shouldn't be released to the public? With a heavy sigh he pulled up Dean's contact. It rang for a few moments before being answered.

"What've you got for me?" 

"You're dealing with a ghost. A man most likely killed by a vehicle or some form of transportation. A car or truck, possibly a bus or train. A witness claimed to hear a horn and a bright light coming from the house. I'm going to check with Garcia and see what she can find about hit and runs, you find town records for missing persons and messy deaths." Spencer got straight into what needed done. He didn't want to waste time that could cause another death. 

"That's gonna take forever, man. Can't that chick of yours do that?" 

"She has to work with the rest of my team first. What she's going to be doing for us is a personal favor and isn't going to be a priority to solving this case for them. Unless I can twist the search into something pertaining to the case, it might take awhile." He didn't like the thought of having to wait to figure out who is killing these people, but Garcia could only do so much. 

"How about that team of yours? Can you keep them off my back while I'm researching? Cause things are gonna get real difficult if they take me in," Dean said. Spencer rub a hand over his face as the thought of blocking his team hadn't really hit him. 

"Right now you're a key suspect in their investigation. I'll be doing what I can to steer them away but I can't let them arrest an innocent for these murders either."

"So me being arrested is the better idea?" Spencer could hear the annoyance clear in the man's voice. 

"No, but you do have several charges against you. So if they do have you in custody it keeps them from arresting an innocent man. Whether you like or not, Dean, your record isn't clean in the slightest."

"Yeah, yeah. You're record isn't exactly clean either, Mr. FBI." 

"I have to go. Don't call me unless you have too," Spencer said. He hung up and went to put his phone down. Working with Dean was going to get him trouble with more than his team one day. Instead of putting down the phone he called up Garcia. He knew she would still be up and at the office despite how late it was; like the rest of them she didn't exactly have a regular sleeping schedule. 

"Goddess of technology and hacking, how can I be of service?" Just hearing the perky and bright voice of the tech analyst brought a smile to his face.

"Hey, Garcia. I need you to do something for me." He waited for her conformation before going on. "Can you find all of the hit and run cases in Joplin, and surrounding counties, going back at least ten years? I think that the unsub might have done a few as practice before actually killing with his own hands." 

"That's going to take some time, Spencer. Do you have anything to narrow the search?" 

"The bloodier the better. These deaths are going to be messy, and if you can, search for messy deaths in the area. Not just hit and runs." He knew Dean wasn't going to get very far in his research. The man gets to distracted to actually work for long periods of time. 

"That's...you think there could be more?"

"Yeah, just give me a call whenever you have something. Thank you." He hung up the phone for the second time that evening and dropped it on the nightstand. It was time to get some sleep and not worry about the case until tomorrow morning. 

<

The next morning was uneventful. They all met up at the police station and went over any theories they had come up with last night, but nothing was sitting right with the profile. It didn't help that Spencer was doing his best to not give the team anything super useful. He didn't now how he was feeling about making sure that this case became a cold one. Of course he couldn't let them know what was actually killing these people, but he felt so bad about making sure that it never got solved in the eyes of the law. This case was the first one he had had to make that decision and he just hoped he wouldn't have to make anymore like this. 

It was mid morning when Garcia got back to him. He was writing out something on the board, possible motives, when his phone started ringing. The object was resting on the table next to him and was quick to be answered. 

"Okay, so I did like you asked." Her voice came through the phone on speaker. Spencer cursed himself at hitting the button automatically. Rossi and Prentiss were the only other ones in the room thankfully. Hotch and Morgan were out going over something else while JJ was talking to the press. With a sigh, he turned back to the table and placed the phone down for the others to hear more clearly. "And the list is longer than I'd like to see. It's pretty surprising, and sad, to know how many hit and runs occur each year. I have over thirty from the last ten years and half of them are as bloody as you asked for."

"Can you narrow it down to men only?" He ignored the looks he was getting from Rossi and Prentiss and carried on. "And did you find anything on the other search?"

"Doing that as we speak, Doctor." The sound of keys typing filled the room for a second. "Five were men, and I took liberties to narrow it down to younger men, if that's alright?"

"That's fine, Garcia," Spencer said. He didn't necessarily believe an older man could be the ghost, but anything is possible. 

"What's the point of looking at hit and runs?" Rossi asked, closing the file that was sitting in front of him.

"I think the unsub might have had practice before the others. The scene is too clean for someone to not have killed before," he answered. The lie slipped through his teeth like he told them everyday. It made him sick to know that he had been lying to the team for as long as he had known them. 

"That means more victims and bodies unaccounted for," Prentiss said. He went to say something to her when Garcia started up again.

"There are only two other deaths in the area that even remotely match the other four." Spencer tapped his fingers impatiently on the table; this list was much longer than he had hoped. "Two men were hit by trains back in the sixties. The Joplin Union Depot has been closed since 1969, so there's been nothing interesting going on there in a while."

"Okay, if you could send us the list of victims that would be great. Thank you, Garcia." Rossi ended the call for him and closed the phone. Prentiss' laptop beeped with a new email that she was quick to answer. She had the files sent to the fax machine to print out copies for everyone to look over. 

"This case just got longer if all of these could be victims of the same man," she said. Spencer nodded but he was no longer paying attention to her. Two men hit by trains; one of them had to be the ghost. The viciousness of the murders and the fact that there wasn't much of a body left of the victims lead to trains being a main factor. Now what he really needed to do was narrow it down to which man it could be.

<

When Morgan and Hotch came back to the station they came straight to the conference room. Spencer was circling things on his files and crossing out others on the train deaths, shortening his searching. He was coming close to figuring out which of them it was doing the killing, but there was still something he was missing. In the background of his work he could hear the others talking about something, but it didn't get is attention until a certain car was mentioned. 

"Garcia, I'm sending you a picture that you need to cross with mug shots across the country. Look for men with 67 Chevy Impala's in their names as well." Morgan said, moving to sit down next to Spencer. He could hear Garcia give her conformation and the typing of keys before the call was ended. A bad feeling was swirling in his chest and made him shift in his seat slightly. 

"Whose picture are you sending?" His question quieted down the others and brought their attention to him. Morgan handed him his phone with a picture of Dean's smug face on the screen. Well, fuck. He couldn't burn the ghost's bones on his own and having Dean in custody was not going to be a fun time. 

"We found him outside the library earlier. Looking up death records," Morgan said. Spencer nodded slowly while doing his best to control his disappointment for the older hunter. One would think knowing that feds were after you would make you act less suspicious, not more. 

"Until we got something for Garcia, I want you all to continue working on why these victims were chosen," Hotch said. He stepped out of the room with Rossi and went to wherever Dean was being held. Spencer slouched in his seat for a moment before going back to crossing out things in his files. 

"Hey, are you alright man? You've been acting a little off since the plane ride." Spencer looked up again to Morgan then a look around the room before going back to his files. 

"I'm fine." His quick dismal got the other three's attention as well. 

"Are you sure? You're normally more involved in a case than this," Prentiss said. Spencer sighed and did his best to not show his guilt to his teammates. 

"It's nothing, just my leg acting up lately." The lie was easy to say for his leg really had been bothering him lately. Not enough to affect his work but it wouldn't hurt to stretch the lie a little bit. 

"You should see your doctor when we get back if it's bothering you that much," JJ said. She placed a soft hand on his shoulder before dropping it back on the table. All he gave her was a nod as he went back to ignoring them. He really needed to figure out which of these men were doing the murders so he could call up Sam or Bobby to take of the bones. 

Barely an hour had passed when Morgan's phone was ringing again. Spencer was just waiting for the backlash that was coming when Garcia revealed who was in holding.

"Right, so the picture you sent me is of a dead man." Before a round of questions could be asked, Garcia made sure to carry on. "First death was in St. Louis after he was found torturing a woman and killed two others before her. The second was when a helicopter transporting them crashed and exploded. The man's name is Dean Winchester and he has quite the record. Two murders and a torture in St. Louis, the murder of a couple in Baltimore, not to mention several counts of card fraud and other misdemeanors."

"The Dean Winchester that Victor Hendrickson was pursuing when he died?" Spencer lifted his head at the mention of the agent that had died at the hands of demons. Bobby had informed him all about what had went down in Colorado. 

"The same. Only Hendrickson arrested him and his brother in Colorado. Where they were kept in a police station that had a gas leak and exploded, killing everyone inside," Garcia said. With all the information on the Winchesters all Spencer could do was hope that Hotch didn't want him in the interrogation, and that Dean didn't spill anything about him helping the man. Just as the call with Garcia was ending Rossi entered the room again. 

"What did Garcia tell you about the man?" 

"Apparently he's Dean Winchester. He's been claimed dead twice now and has escaped custody several times before," Prentiss said. Spencer could hear the lingering anger in her voice, and he knew it was for the death of Hendrickson. He learned some time ago that him and Prentiss were friends and his death hit her hard.

"Right, Reid." He looked up from his files to the older man, doing his best to not assume the worst. "Hotch wants you in the interrogation with him."

Spencer gave the man a nod while getting up to his feet. Curses were running through his mind as he made his way back to the observation room with Rossi. He told the older man everything Garcia had said about Dean and took extra care not to say anything that the FBI wouldn't know about him. There was so much he could use against the man if he wished, but he would never betray the hunter even at the cost of his own job. All he could hope for at the moment was that Dean wouldn't call him out by name or say anything that linked them together. 

When they reached the observation room Hotch greeted them. While Rossi informed the boss about Dean, Spencer watched the man. He was leaning back smugly even with his hands cuffed to the table. As if knowing they had entered he looked at the window and stared at Spencer.

"Don't I get a call or something?" Dean's carefree voice sounded through the speakers but everyone ignored it. They wouldn't give the man a call if their lives depended on it. Spencer drummed his fingers on his crutches slowly and waited for Hotch to make him enter the room. 

"Let's go Reid. I don't want you speaking to Winchester for the first part of the interrogation, follow my lead," Hotch said. He waited for his nod of conformation before moving to enter the room.

When Spencer stepped into the room behind Hotch he caught the quick look Dean sent his way. He obviously wasn't expecting him to step into the room. To give him credit, Spencer didn't plan on being of the interrogation either. Thankfully Dean didn't pay him any more attention as they both sat down across from him. Hotch put down a file that Rossi had brought him on the recent murders. 

"I really need to make a call," Dean said. Hotch ignored him in favor of turning to Spencer. 

"Do you need another chair for your leg? JJ mentioned it was bothering you." Spencer laid his crutches on the ground behind them while shaking his head.

"I should be fine as long as I'm not in here for a while." He tapped on his leg and watched Hotch, not quite understanding why he was asking about his leg now. If he thought it would lower Dean's guard then he was well passed wrong. Hotch gave him a nod before turning to finally address Dean.

"Dean Winchester, I need you to answer a few questions for me." Hotch laid the file on the table and spun it so it was right side up for Dean. "Do you recognize any of these people?" He flipped the file open to reveal pictures of the victims before the murders. Dean barely looked over the pictures before he was shaking his head.

"Nope, sorry. Can I go now?" Spencer studied the man like he knew Hotch would want even though he already knew what Dean was probably thinking. 

"Is this your first time in Joplin, Missouri?"

"Yeah, never had a reason to be here," Dean said. Spencer closed his eyes for a second and held himself back from shaking his head; that was the wrong answer to give. 

"And could be your reason now? Because these murders look like something you could do," Hotch said. Dean leaned back in his chair and offered him a shrug. 

"I don't know what you're talking, I'm just looking for a friend of mine." The shift of his eyes to toward Spencer hopefully went unnoticed by the senior profiler, but that might be too much to hope for. Thankfully Hotch had decided to overlook the shift or was holding it for something to come. 

"What about the murders in St. Louis and Baltimore? Are you going to tell me you had nothing to do with that?" Hotch tossed a glance at Spencer as a sign to join the interrogation. 

"That wasn't me." Dean started before Spencer interrupted. As much as he didn't want to, he knew what Hotch was wanting him to do.

"Two women were tortured and murdered in their homes. Another woman was being tortured before the police showed up and you faked your death." Spencer met Dean's gaze with a silent plead to go along with him. "Then you and your brother murdered a married couple in Baltimore then escaped both FBI and police custody. You were finally picked up in Colorado where you faked your death once again, while everyone else in that building died in that gas leak." Even before he finished speaking he knew had worded that wrong. 

"Wow, what a way to join the discussion, Spencer." Dean gave him a sharp grin and ignored the way Hotch was looking at them. "Didn't know you knew about that." 

"Reid." Hotch grabbed his shoulder and made a motion for him to get up and leave. Spencer looked away from Dean and reached around to pick up his crutches, making a move to get out his chair. 

"You should get a hair cut, kid. It's worse than Sam's." Dean called out after him. Doing his best to ignore the hunter, he left the room and joined Rossi. The older man didn't offer him a glance or notion that he knew he was there. Spencer took that as an answer to not leave the room and turned to watch the room. 

"How do you know, Dr. Reid?" Dean slouched back in his seat and turned back to Hotch with a grin on his face. 

"I've probably known him longer than you have. Met him back when he was just turning sixteen." Despite Hotch knowing how to control his expressions, Spencer could tell Dean had picked up on something. "Oh, he obviously hasn't told you. Yeah, he mentioned something about not telling you guys."

Spencer shrunk back from Rossi and the window as the older man looked over at him. He really shouldn't have made it out that Dean would purposely leave behind all those people. While he knew that neither brother would do that, Hotch didn't and wouldn't take the discussion any other way. And now he has to deal with the repercussions of pissing off and offending Dean. Which seemed to be the ending of his career and every friendship he had ever built in the BAU. He knew he should be angry at the hunter, but he couldn't bring himself to feel anything other than shame and guilt. 

"Are you in Missouri to meet up with Reid?" Hotch was trying to steer the discussion back around to the case, but Spencer knew it wasn't going to go the way he wanted it too.

"No, but he has been helping with a case. The same one your team is working on actually. Funny how he can work a case in two different ways without a problem. Ain't that right, kid?" Dean looked at the window and stared at where he knew Spencer was standing. Hotch stood up from his chair and made his way to the door. "Don't be too harsh on him, Agent. He means well most of the time."

Spencer sighed and straightened up as much as he could to face his teammates, and boss, with some semblance of dignity. When Hotch entered the room he looked straight to Rossi, and once receiving a nod he turned to Spencer. At first no one said a word, and there was no way he was going to start. 

"Is he lying, Reid?" Even knowing that he could lie through his teeth and probably make a convincing story he wasn't going too. If this was how his team found about his double life then so be it, he wasn't going to betray Dean more than he already had. 

"No. I've been working with him." Neither man made a move to say anything, waiting for him to explain himself. He sighed and lowered his head in defeat. "None of this will make sense unless I start from the beginning. And I'm not going to explain it twice." He motioned for them to leave the observation room and head back to the conference room.

Hotch shared a look with Rossi before allowing Spencer to lead them. He gripped his crutches tightly as he made his way back to the room that was provided to them. This explanation was probably going to land him right next to his mother and then back to hunting with the Winchesters. Which wouldn't be the worst thing to happen but he really wanted to stay at the BAU. He knew the only one of the team to most likely believe him was JJ but even if she did she would have him locked away for murder. 

Stepping into the room got the attention of the other three in the room. Just by his own body language he knew they would pick up on something being wrong. He dropped down into a chair and placed his crutches on the ground next to him. Hotch and Rossi sat across from him, which left a couple seats between him and the rest of his team. If Prentiss, JJ, or Morgan picked up on the placement they didn't question it. 

"Reid." In that same commanding tone that he used when one of them was in trouble Hotch ordered him to explain. He continued to stare down at the files on the table. The two he was working on before being dragged away. With the new perspective he had-not paying attention to the files-he could pick out what set the two deaths apart. Johnathan Davis was hit by a train in 1963, a pure freak accident when he fell on the tracks. Richard Tab was killed in 1969 by a train but he wasn't alone at the tracks. The file says that Richard was there with a group of friends and his death was an accident. 

"How could I miss that?" He asked himself while picking up a marker to circle where Richard was buried. If he could just get a call out to Sam or even get away from his team long enough to take of the bones himself then the case can be finally closed. He looked up to his team and tossed the file in the middle of the table. "That's who killed our victims. Took me longer than I expected to figure it out."

"That's a dead man," Prentiss said. 

"And has been for forty years. Someone must have started working on the Depot sometime this month and disturbed his spirit." He tapped the file twice before pushing closer to Hotch. 

"What are you going on about, Reid?" Morgan asked, moving to close the file. Spencer placed his hand on the file to stop the man from closing it.

"Richard Tab's ghost is killing people." He kept his hand on the file until Morgan moved away from it. Everyone was watching him carefully, like he might lash out. Which he never would but they really weren't going to understand what was going on.

"Reid, you're here to explain how you know Winchester. Not accuse dead men of murder," Hotch said. The three that hadn't been in the observation room turned to him with equal shocked and questioning gazes. Spencer tapped on the table next to the file before leaning back in his chair. 

"I'm going to get this out of the way first." He ran a hand through his hair and pulled it all back away from his face. "Whatever monster you can think of exists. Dean and Sam, among several others, hunt those creatures down when they start causing trouble. Monster have existed since humans and in some cases before them. Most of them came to be from mutations in our genes that continued to evolve and grow, while others were made by outside forces." He paused to watch his teammates to see most of them with blank expressions, clearly not believing him. 

"You guys know how my mother is in a hospital." He waited for their varied nods before continuing. "She's in there because of hunting. She used to be a hunter before she met my father and had me. I found out through the several journals she wrote about such monsters. At first I didn't believe her, thought it was just schizophrenic writing, until something attacked the house when I was thirteen. No, it wasn't just a break in because the person was already dead. It didn't take long for me start believing despite how much I value science over most things superstitious. My mother refused to teach me about hunting, so I had to learn on my own. And that's how I met the Winchesters. We were working the same case in Southern California. After that we worked together on and off until I started at the FBI academy. I gave up hunting to pursue this, but I still help hunters when they ask." 

Spencer tapped out a rhythm on the table while waiting for someone to say something. They exchanged looks with each other but didn't look at him. He could already tell they didn't believe him and were about ready to lock him away. 

"Reid," Rossi started. Spencer looked over to him and waited for him to continue. "Do you actually believe everything you just said?"

"Yes." He answered without hesitation. "Without a doubt." 

"Are you doing okay, Spence?" JJ moved around the table to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. He shrugged her off and turned to look up at her. 

"Yes, I'm doing okay. Yes, I'm sane. No, I'm not delusional. No, I'm not going crazy." He narrowed his eyes for a second before looking back at the rest of the team. "Look, I can prove it to you. If you just let me go burn Tab's bones then you can see I'm not crazy." 

"We're not going to let you desecrate a grave for the sake of your skewed beliefs," Hotch said. Spencer felt his chest grow tighter and burn start in the back of his throat. He thought that they would be at least more considerate than this. Pushing back his feelings of betrayal, he put on a mask for them to see. 

"I need to speak with Dean." Upon seeing their expressions, he leaned forward and crossed his arms on the table. "Or you're going to have to cuff me to stop me from seeing him." When he didn't get a response he moved to grab his crutches off the floor. Morgan stood up just as he got to his feet. 

"Reid, you need to calm down man." Spencer leveled him with a cold stare but made no move for the door. 

He was about to say something when the lights overhead started flickering. An electrical charge started to grow in the room and made his hair stand on end. A dark feeling started to grow in his stomach as the lights started to dim, well on their way to going out. He looked over at his team and then up at the lights. This wasn't anything he had ever dealt with, but he had a pretty good guess as to what it could be. His suspicious were confirmed when the building started to shake before falling still.

"Dean." The urgency in his voice seemed to make up his team's minds. He started for the door with them following behind. The closer they got to the room holding Dean the more anxious Spencer grew. Whatever was here was strong and deadly. 

When he burst through the door he really didn't expect to find a man standing in front of Dean. He was short and missing quite a bit of hair off the top of his head. What really got his attention was the fact that Dean was bleeding from a busted lip. The hunter turned to them as they entered the room and sought out Spencer. 

"FBI! Hands in the air!" Morgan aimed his gun at the back of the man's head along with the rest of the team. Spencer bypassed them to where Dean was trying to get his attention. 

"Call Cas. Tell him old Zach is back." Spencer gave him a nod and moved to slip back out of the room. He knew that praying to the angel was the fastest way to get him there, but also that he could't show up if he was around Dean. 

Just as he was about to the leave the room Prentiss caught his arm. She held him there for a second before allowing him to slip out the door. He barely moved from the door before praying to the angel that guarded the Winchesters. Bobby had made sure to fill him in on everything that had happened in the last few years a while ago. Castiel and the angels just happened to be a big part of that. Spencer bowed his head and called out to the angel, saying that Dean was in trouble and Zachariah was there. It took less than a second before the trench coat clad angel appeared next to him.

"Spencer Reid, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. Dean talks highly of you." The gravely voice coming from the angel startled him enough to make him try and take a step back. Without the help of the crutches he slipped and just barely caught himself again.

"Same to you. Bobby informed me all about you and what you've been doing for the Winchesters." He looked over the disheveled angel before motioning to the door behind him. Castiel took his hint and entered the room where an argument seemed to be going on. Spencer came in behind him and ignored the looks his team were sending him. 

"Zachariah." The other angel turned around and gave Castiel a dark look. 

"He is Michael's vessel. You can not stop what has to happen." 

"I'm not being some archangel's meat suit so he can hash out a disagreement with his brother," Dean said. He tugged at the cuffs holding him to the table but didn't look away from Zachariah. Spencer moved around the angels to lean against the table holding Dean down. His movement caught Zachariah's attention and brought a twisted grin to the angel's face. 

"Ah, Spencer Reid. I have heard much about you from a few of the others. They seem to have taken an interest you despite the fact that there is nothing special about you." Spencer only gave him an unimpressed look and moved his crutches in between his legs as he sat on the table. "How's your mother doing? Last I checked she was still fighting her doctors when you were still a child."

"What does my mother have to do with you being here? I thought Dean was the reason for you unwarranted visit," he said. Zachariah glowered at him and moved to take a step towards him when a silver blade was pressed to his chest. Spencer looked over to see Castiel holding the blade without a waver in his hand. 

"Watch your tone, boy." Spencer moved his gaze away from the angels to where something was being pressed against his hand. Dean was drawing something on the table with his finger while trying to get his attention, without the angels'. 

He memorized the symbol after the first pass and looked at the hunter for more instructions. Dean pointed to the blood on his chin and made a motion to stabbing his hand. A breath rushed out of Spencer as he dug into his pocket for something sharp enough to cut his hand open with. He pulled out a pen and cringed. This was seriously going to hurt. Without another thought he stabbed his hand with the pen while shielding it from the others in the room. His blood pooled in his palm before he stuck a finger in it and started on the symbol on the table. Around him he could hear the angels talking and his team trying to figure out what was happening. After a few seconds the symbol was made and he turned to look at Dean. The hunter nodded to him before motioning to Castiel.

"Cas!" Dean shouted and nodded to the door quickly. The angel took his warning and disappeared from the room before anyone could tell what was going on. Spencer hopped up from the table and showed his bleeding palm to the only angel still in the room. "I'd look away if I was you." Dean said to the other humans in the room.

Spencer slammed his hand down on the symbol and shielded his eyes from the bright light with his other arm. A harsh heat swept over the room as the angel was banished from the near vicinity. When the light dimmed once again he lowered his arm. Where an angel once stood was nothing that could be tied to the creature other than the residual electrical energy. With the immediate threat dealt with, he sat back down on the table heavily. He lifted his hand off the blood symbol and pressed it against his pants to try and stem the bleeding. 

"What the hell was that?" Morgan asked while lowering his arms from his face. The others followed suit and looked around the room before stopping on the two hunters. 

"An angel banishing symbol. Only works once, so we should be good for a while," Dean answered. He tugged on the cuffs once more before turning to Hotch. "Could you unlock these, man? My hands are starting to go numb." Spencer held up a finger to Hotch while digging through his other pocket. He had picked the hand cuff keys off of Hotch a while ago in the plan to release Dean during the interrogation. 

"Here." He placed the keys in Dean's hands. "I nicked them an hour or so ago." He sent Hotch an apologetic look, not that he was actually sorry but it's the thought that counts. 

"Let's bandage your hand." JJ stepped closer to him despite the obvious uneasy looks she was receiving. He hopped off the table again and picked up his crutches from where they had fallen. Everyone filed out of the room silently and back to the conference room. JJ placed him in a chair before disappearing to find a medical kit. The others sat down around the table with Dean perching himself right next to Spencer. 

"Where'd Castiel go? I thought he'd be outside the door." Spencer looked over to Dean and waited for an answer. 

"Don't know. Probably down the block. Those symbols banish any angel within a pretty big range." Dean kicked his feet up on the table while crossing his arms over his chest. 

"Angels? That's who those men were?" Rossi looked over an Spencer first then to Dean. 

"Yeah, great feathery douches are what they are." The hunter seemed to ponder something before slapping a hand down on Spencer's shoulder loudly. "That was your first encounter with angels, isn't it?" Spencer gave him a small nod while trying to ignore the stinging in his hand. "Pretty good, kid. What with you being out for five or six years, anyway." 

"Six years, three months, and seventeen days." He answered automatically. 

"I have not missed that," Dean said. He patted his shoulder before turning to the team watching them silently. "He used to tell Sammy and I how long it had been since we'd last been to school. It got real annoying after the first couple of times. How did you know that type of stuff anyway? I never bothered to ask." 

"An educated guess. I took the time it had been since I'd last seen you guys and how often you went school. It couldn't have been less than a week at the minimum," Spencer said. Dean lifted an eyebrow at him and shook his head. "I actually called Bobby most of the time." He flashed the older hunter a grin and did his best to duck away from the hand coming his way. 

"I knew you couldn't have known that off the top of your head! You've been lying to me since we first met," Dean accused. Spencer turned back to him with his own smug look.

"How so?"

"You just said it," Dean started. 

"No, you never asked before. It doesn't count as lying if you never bothered to find out how I knew." Dean gave him a lasting glare and turned away from him childishly. Spencer only shook his head and looked to the door as it open. JJ made her way straight to him and set out the kit on the table before taking his hand. It was just barely bleeding but his entire palm was covered in blood much like the leg of his pants. 

"You didn't have to make it so deep, ya know. Just enough to make the symbol," Dean said. All he got in response was a nod as JJ patched up Spencer's hand. Nobody said anything for a while until his hand was bandaged and JJ was sitting next to him. 

"We still have this case to finish," Hotch started. He stopped when Spencer pushed the file of the dead man towards him. 

"All we have to do is salt and burn this ghosts bones," Dean said. He didn't even know who it was but he had gone through the process too many times to really worry about the information when someone else already had it. 

"Richard Tab," Spencer provided. 

"Right, just dig up the poor fuckers grave and set it on fire. Then your done and the case is closed. The End." Dean moved to get up from his seat when Hotch settled him with a cold glare. As if on instinct, Dean sat back down in his seat and started tapping out a rhythm on his leg. 

"We aren't going to desecrate a grave." Spencer slouched down in his seat and sighed loud enough to have Hotch turn to him. 

"We aren't going to find a living unsub, Hotch. There is nothing at the crime scene's that can link a human to these murders nor is there one in the victims. And you wouldn't put an innocent in jail for murders he didn't commit," Spencer said. There were about three ways this could go. Him and Dean get tried for the murders and go to jail, an innocent man takes the fall, or a ghost gets burned away and stops the killings. 

"He has a point, Hotch." Everyone looked to where Prentiss was picking at her nails under the table. "We don't have any solid evidence in this case. All we know is that these people were killed in their houses in some mysterious way while nobody heard or saw anything. Their doors and windows had been locked and there were signs of forced entry. A human couldn't pull off such a brutal kill without trailing blood everywhere."

"Let Dean deal with the ghost while we work on making this a cold case," Spencer said. As much as he hated the idea, it really was their best option.

"Are we really considering this?" Morgan asked, looking from each person at the table before stopping on Hotch. 

"I don't like the idea, but it's the best one we've got," Rossi said. He never was one to believe in supernatural stuff but even he could write what had just happened in the interrogation room. 

"Fine, but you're staying here, Reid. All of us are." Hotch gave Dean the go ahead with a nod to the door. 

Spencer relaxed into his seat with a sigh as Dean disappeared out the door. He was going to have to work hard to rebuild the friendships with his team and regain their trust. There was no way they could go back to the way things had been before this case. Not when he turned their worlds almost upside down. 

<

A few days later without another killing the BAU gave their apologies as they packed up to head back to Quantico. Spencer was waiting in the lobby of the hotel for the rest of his team with his go back slung over his shoulder. He tapped his foot restlessly until he caught sight of a familiar black car pulling up across the street. Dean stepped out of the Impala and made his way over to the hotel with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He opened the doors and made a bee line straight to Spencer.

"I know you're happy with your current job and life. But if you ever make your way back into the world I'll help ease you back into it. So you don't kill yourself or anyone else." Dean slapped a hand on his shoulder before pulling away. "Right, enough of the chick flick moments. The world is going down hill now that the apocalypse has started. There's going to be an increase in activity across the world from every creature and monster you can think of, so keep in touch. We're probably going to need your help at some point in the future. And don't fight Cas if he tries to shield you from angels. He's not going to give up as easy as you might think."

"I'll, uh, keep that in mind." Spencer rubbed his arm absentmindedly and shifted his crutched footing. "Are you serious about the start of the apocalypse? The unleashing of the devil isn't something to be taken lightly, not if the stories are actually true in this case."

"Dead serious. Lucifer is walking the earth and trying to get Sam to be his meat suit for the prom," Dean said. He looked over his shoulder back out to where Baby sat in the street. "Call if you need anything. I'm off to meet up with Sam." 

Spencer said his goodbyes to Dean before he disappeared back into the streets. This case was still full of surprises even after they closed it.


End file.
